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Rodgers Warns Van Gaal: Premier League Will Take You By Surprise

Published

10 years ago

August 6, 2014

The Liverpool boss believes his Manchester United counterpart has never experienced such a competitive and hotly contested division before and is anticipating an open title race
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers believes new Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal could struggle with the unpredictability of the Premier League despite an excellent start to life in charge of the Red Devils.
The Dutchman has yet to lose since taking over at Old Trafford, and a positive pre-season campaign culminated in a 3-1 victory over the Merseysiders in Miami to claim the International Champions Cup.
Rodgers, though, believes Van Gaal has not experienced anything quite like the Premier League in his long and successful career and is convinced the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach has a challenge on his hands to adapt.
I think what he’ll find is the competition in this league will be different from any other league that he’s worked in,” said the Northern Irishman. “In a lot of the other leagues there are one or two teams and those are the teams that are expected to win.
“This is a league where the top team plays the bottom team and on any given day you can lose. You don’t get that a lot in the other leagues. I think the competition will probably take him by surprise and that’s from foreign managers I have spoken to over the years.
“I’ve worked closely with foreign players who have come in and that real physical competitive nature will be different from anywhere else he’s worked before.”
Rodgers almost masterminded a stunning title tilt last season, falling just short, and he believes it will be even harder to claim Premier League glory in the upcoming campaign due to the abundance of quality at the top of the division.
“I think it’s going to be really as competitive,” the Liverpool boss continued. “Last season was great and right the way through there were four or five teams right up there, and then in the closing months it narrowed down a wee bit.
“The Premier League historically shows that it’s a very competitive league. Man United will want to bounce back, Chelsea will be strong, Manchester City are the champions so they’ll be the favourites.
“The likes of Tottenham have been up there the last couple of seasons. When Harry Redknapp was there they were a Champions League team. So the numbers are there to make it really competitive again and difficult to forecast.”